It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other.
—Petrarch (1304–74) Italian Scholar, Poet, Humanist
You must be worthy of the best, but not more worthy than the rest.
—Denis Waitley (1933–2025) American Speaker, Consultant, Self-help Pioneer
Many a man who now lacks shoe-leather would wear golden spurs if knighthood were the reward of worth.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
We are merely the stars tennis-balls, struck and bandied which way please them.
—John Webster (1580–1634) English Dramatist, Poet
Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important … they do not mean to do harm … they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
All good things are cheap: all bad are very dear.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
There is hardly any one so insignificant that he does not seem imposing to some one at some time.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
It’s not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit.
—French Proverb
Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
That person proves his worth who can make us want to listen when he is with us and think when he is gone.
—Unknown
Nothing is worth making that does not make the man.
—Unknown
‘Tis not in mortals to command success, But we’ll do more, for we’ll deserve it.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Physicists know what’s important, but they don’t know what is true. Mathematicians know what’s true, but they don’t know what is important.
—Unknown
We never know the worth of water ’til the well is dry.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.
—George Goodman (b.1930) American Economist, Author
One of the most important truths in the world is that there is worth enough in any rascal to cost the spilling of the Precious Blood.
—Austin O’Malley (1858–1932) American Aphorist, Ophthalmologist
An ingenuous mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Everything that’s really worthwhile in life comes to us.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Where quality is the thing sought after, the thing of supreme quality is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
Nobody knows what a boy is worth. We’ll have to wait and see. But every man in a noble place a boy once used to be.
—Unknown
The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as a means to other account, and not merely as a means to other things, are knowledge, art instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
You are important enough to ask and you are blessed enough to receive back.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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